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By Nichola Groom

May 12 (Reuters) - A group of U.S. solar panel makers on Tuesday asked federal trade officials to investigate solar shipments from Ethiopia, alleging that companies are finishing their products there to avoid import duties on Chinese-made goods.

The filing with the U.S. Department of Commerce is the latest in a decade-long string of attempts by owners of domestic solar panel factories to seek tariffs on cheap imports made primarily by Chinese companies.

It alleges that Japan's Toyo and Origin Solar Manufacturing are using Chinese-made wafers to make solar cells in Ethiopia, then assembling those cells into panels in Ethiopia or Vietnam for export to the U.S.

It is illegal to circumvent U.S. tariffs by re-routing goods through other countries with minor processing modifications.

The petitioning group includes Arizona-based First Solar Inc FSLR.O, Qcells, the solar manufacturing unit of South Korea's Hanwha 000880.KS, and six smaller producers. Both First Solar and Qcells have invested billions of dollars in major U.S. solar panel factories.

Ethiopia is a rising solar manufacturer. The U.S. did not receive any solar energy imports from the African nation until the middle of 2025, and such imports had reached $300 million by the end of the year, quickly making Ethiopia the No. 7 U.S. solar importer last year.

"What we're seeing in Ethiopia follows a familiar playbook," Tim Brightbill, a partner with Wiley Rein and the lead attorney for the group, said in a statement. "American solar manufacturing is at an inflection point: With billions invested, thousands of jobs created, real capacity coming online, we are not going to let serial tariff evasion undercut that progress."

The U.S. has had anti-dumping and countervailing duties in place for a decade on Chinese-made solar products after a Commerce probe found companies there were receiving unfair government subsidies that kept prices artificially low. It has also imposed duties on products from Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam after many Chinese firms set up factories in those nations.